Tempus Rei by ALIO DIE ~

Tempus Rei is further evidence that the ambient artist known as Alio Die is in fact the reincarnation of a very old soul, probably from the High Middle Ages dovetailing into the Renaissance.

The matter-of-fact list of devices used to make this extraordinary album - "drones and loops, zither and field recordings" - reveals nothing about the depth and mystery of the two, half-hour long pieces.Stating however as the artist does that it was "celebrated", rather than created, speaks volumes.

The first piece features a leitmotif so inherently beguiling that I feel sad and disappointed when it disappears. Happily, a few minutes into the second offering, it slowly reemerges. The entire album is redolent of old, musty wooden beams and fusty, book-lined rooms, as entire collections of ancient instruments appear to have been sampled and woven into this irresistibly captivating tapestry.

As an added temporal twist, the entire recording features its own,discreet background track of rainy, current-day street sounds, tires whishing by on wet pavement, a heavy, gusting wind casting raindrops at the window.

One of the most understated and yet most powerful of Alio Die´s many unforgettable works.
Posted by Stephen Fruitman

Since the late 80s, Stefano Musso has recorded deep, evocative experimental ambient & electro-acoustic soundscapes under the name Alio Die.
His music is a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, step-and-repeat sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design, textural passages..by the music's vague, entropic formlessness.

aliodie.com